RBS International has appointed a head of Funds in order to push its business in the alternative funds sector to additional jurisdictions.
Peter Brown (pictured) has been appointed to the role, after most recently heading the RBS Financial Institutions Group in the UK, which includes the RBS funds banking business. He has over 25 years of experience in corporate and institutional banking.
In the new role he will head a team that supports over 1,000 fund manager and fund administrator clients in the UK, Jersey and Guernsey, while the business is looking to expand into Luxembourg, having recently obtained a local banking licence. The Luxembourg branch is expected to be operational by March 2017.
The push into Luxembourg comes as the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (Alfi) noted in December 2016 that the jurisdiction claims 10.5% of Europe’s alternative investment fund market, or some €568bn of AUM. As of early December last year, some 605 alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) had registered with local regulator the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Driving both the registration of AIFMs and the administration of non-Luxembourg alternative investment funds in the jurisdiction has been the takeup of the pan-EU marketing passport that is facilitated by the AIFM Directive, Alfi chairman Denise Voss said.
Andrew McLaughlin, chief executive of RBS International, added that “there is an increasing demand for specialist banking services to support the international alternative funds industry.”
